Diets. _Shudder._
Diets have gotten a pretty bad rap in the past several years, and frankly, it’s about time. There has been a major cultural shift from dieting with the goal being weight loss to permanently changing your entire diet to make for a healthier, more fulfilling lifestyle.
The definition of “diet” is not restricting yourself to make temporary gains; “diet” describes all of the food you put into your body. So stop “dieting,” and start changing your diet! (Have I said “diet” enough yet? It literally doesn’t even sound like a real word when I say it out loud anymore.)
**Start small**: Going cold turkey is really not your best strategy, unless you’re determined to fail. Making incremental changes to your food intake and increasing those changes over time is guaranteed to be more effective than hugely restricting yourself right from the start. For example, begin by having only one non-water drink a day, then gradually cut out sugary drinks entirely.
**Swap foods**: Instead of removing bread from your diet, trade in your Wonder Bread for a slice of whole wheat or whole grain. (Multi-grain is also an option, although it’s often more processed than whole grain; plain wheat, as opposed to whole wheat, is typically just white bread that’s been dyed to appear brown. The audacity!)
**Exercise**: Generally, exercise reinforces your healthy life. Most people don’t want to ruin their hard work in the gym with a plate of nachos. Go have a great workout and make a plan for what you’re going to eat afterwards to “treat” yourself. Just make sure it’s nutritious and will replenish your body.
**Don’t overcompensate for your workout**: Just finished a one-hour spin class? Great! You probably burned upwards of 500 calories! However, this does not mean you need to refuel your body with more calories than what you burned. Eat something filling but not massive after your workout, like an apple with peanut butter.
**Find your own methods**: Some people follow the 80/20 rule: eating healthy 80 percent of the time and treating themselves 20 percent of the time. Some abide by the “cheat day” life: eating clean foods for a week and, on the last day of the week, treating themselves to a particularly decadent meal. Figure out what works for you. There’s no “right” way to change your lifestyle!
**Keep yourself in check**: Whether you jot down what you eat in a journal or count your calories, it’s important to be conscious of what you’re putting into your body. If you feel like you’ve been eating healthy and exercising but still haven’t seen the results you want, take a serious look at everything that goes into your mouth. Those couple of chips you ate with your lunch and that tiny piece of cake you ate straight out of the pan (does it really count if you didn’t put it on a plate?) can add up.
**Utilize apps**: There are tons of health-related apps available. A few suggestions:
_TwoGrand_: an Instagram-esque app that lets you keep a food diary through pictures! Follow other people for food inspiration and encouragement.
_MyFitnessPal_: a great way to personalize your diet. Enter your height, weight and weight loss/fitness goals, and My Fitness Pal will generate a personal calorie-count for you. Then, enter in what you’ve been eating (you can search for the food or snap a picture of the barcode which the app will read and then enter in for you), track your calories and try to stay under your goal for that day.
As always, don’t forget to keep at it! You’re never going to lose 10 pounds in a day. Aim for something sustainable not a temporary solution to problems you may be facing with your weight or health.
